Some of you may know that for the last 5 - 6 months Real Life work has dominated my time. I have been away from home on and off working on a special contract. I am finally done with it. This means that I get 70% of my life back and can progress things here and in my studio - back to building models - Yay!!

I do have an awful lot of stuff to catch up on, if you have been waiting to hear back from me I apologise. I need to thank Chris Dye and my wife Cathy for helping out in my absence and you guys for staying the course. I will answer all my PM's and email's over the next few days. As soon as I can I will buy a new laptop so I can frequent the board even when I am away. My iPhone is a great tool but not really practical to admin the board when I am travelling.

So what has been happening?

Well I can tell you that plans for re-developing the Taybor's Emporium and The post Man links into eBay are done testing and just starting to go live.

Why is this important?

I have seen over the last year that prices for collectables, model kits and other reference materials go up and down and some real bargains have been missed completely. If you have been following the SID research thread for example you'll know that you need a stack of kits to attempt to scale and build a replica. Enter eBay, I have managed to research and buy quite a lot of kits there, but also to track prices.

Someone bought a 44" Eagle recently at a very good price so it's important that we can access this information easily. Some of our kit producers use eBay to make general sales, we should support them too and it's good to see what's new. Lastly if you have a collectable it's nice to know if it's as valuable as you think....

The Anderson Reference section has started to swell. Thanks to Adama I can now post high definition screen grabs from a few shows to aid with mapping and blueprinting. You will need to be a registered member to view this area (free to join) and an AMC member to view and download the blueprints as I publish them (£10.00 per year). I am trying to make 5 blueprints available per year as a growing collection of reference so it's good value. This also raises funds for board costs so we can keep on, keeping on..

I will be starting another new section soon looking at the vintage toys as a starting point for converting to an accurate replica. A good example of this is the Century 21 Angel Interceptor from Classic Captain Scarlet. It's not bad as a toy but did you know it is also really good as a scale model. So good in fact that it really only requires removal of the friction drive & wheels, adding some cockpit detail & paint work and you have a great replica. I need your input here too, what do you think of these toys? I will start a thread with good images to make the process and debate easy to follow.

I have had many emails about reference material. I found out recently that the TV21 Comic and a lot of the annuals contain photos staged just for those publications so I have just added a new section searching eBay for them. It's useful to point and ask questions rather than just buy blind, so if you are looking for reference for a subject then please ask. I am happy to share what I have and post here. Eventually we will have all the reference and kit parts "spotted" so the guys who follow us don't have to start with a blank canvas and struggle so much.

The puppet guys are getting organised and I have been sorting the structure for the new Supermarionation Section with a view to providing as much research and information as possible. This is obviously a big job and can't be attempted by just me so I have approached several board guru's to aid the cause. I think it would be just brilliant if we could have a build for each puppet character so if you have any information you can share let me know as this will be recorded in the permanent reference section. Leading on from this I finally get the chance to look at two personal heroes. The collected genius of Reg Hill and Bob Bell. They created the sets and puppet equipment that has fascinated me for many years, this promises to be something quite special....

We are expecting Duey's Altares Model kit to arrive in the next few weeks. He has retooled a few parts to improve them and developed new moulds to cast this kit. It's 10.5 inches and £32.50

I'd like to pass on my thanks to both your Wife and also Chris too for their hard work as visiting the forum is a very regular occurrence for me . I'd noticed the extra sections whilst I was browsing the new posts today. Looks like I will be spending more of my time on here now ! Its great that this type of information is being provided as I know that I've missed quite a few bargains lately and having someone do the "legwork" for you gives you a lot more time to actually put the stuff together !

I'm looking forward to the other goodies you have in store for us , you certainly have my support !

I almost forgot to mention there will be a significant increase in the size of the Puppet Reference section over the next week or so. I have almost finished compiling the Puppet images for every Puppet seen on screen in Thunderbirds and will be starting Classic Captain Scarlet next week.

If you are thinking or have attempted a replica Puppet this is definitely for you.

Hopefully with the new moderation team in place we will be able to really rock these sections.